Woman charged in string of metro-east arsons to be evaluated for mental fitness

A 26-year-old woman has been charged with arson after officials say she admitted to starting more than four fires in Cahokia Heights.

Kenya Sloan, who was without a home, was ordered detained by a St. Clair County judge until she can be evaluated for her fitness to stand trial, according to circuit court records.

Cahokia Heights police officers were dispatched to the 100 block of Lazarcheff Drive, May 19 to investigate a call of a burglary in progress. The officers had already been briefed about individuals breaking into vacant properties and starting fires, according to Cahokia Heights Police Chief Thomas Trice.

“The caller reported three subjects, one female and two males, were attempting to enter the back of a vacant home,” Trice said.

One of the three was later identified as Kenya Sloan, a homeless person from Cahokia Heights.

Police are still looking for the other two suspects, Trice said.

Sloan has been on police radar as a possible suspect in a string of arsons throughout the city over the past several months, Trice said.

“Sloan was also suspected of breaking into a vacant house a couple of weeks ago and setting the vacant structure on fire,” he said. “That fire caught the home next to it on fire with a family inside. If not for the quick response of the Cahokia Heights Fire Department that family could have sustained serious injury.”

Trice notified the Illinois State Fire Marshall ‘s office about Sloan’s arrest for arson. During an interview, Sloan admitted to setting the fires, according to Trice.